In the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, the violence faded from view...but the consequences did not.
In Part III, we examine what followed the destruction of the Baker–Fancher party in southern Utah Territory. Tracing the fate of the surviving children, the immediate efforts to manage the massacre narrative, and the long delay before accountability was pursued.
This final chapter focuses on the aftermath of the massacre...how it was remembered, how it was concealed, and how its legacy continued to surface long after 1857.
References & Further Reading
In early September 1857, the Baker–Fancher party found themselves trapped in a remote mountain valley in southern Utah, under siege and running out of options. What had begun as suspicion and rumor had now turned deadly.
In Part II, we follow the final days at Mountain Meadows... the failed negotiations, the desperate decisions, and the massacre itself. We examine how fear, obedience, and silence shaped the choices made by local Mormon leaders and militia men, and what happened in the immediate aftermath as survivors were scattered, and the truth was buried.
See why there is a long shadow cast over the American West from this incident.
In the late summer of 1857, a well-equipped wagon train of emigrants known as the Baker–Fancher party rolled into Utah Territory on their way to California... They were exhausted, hopeful, and unaware that they were arriving during one of the most dangerous moments in early Mormon-American history.
What followed would become one of the most shocking and disputed tragedies of the nineteenth century: the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
In Part I, The Road to Murder, we trace the rising tensions that set the stage long before a single shot was fired.
From early Latter Day Saint tragedies, pioneer identity and the U.S. government’s standoff with Brigham Young, that shaped the paranoia gripping frontier settlements...
In Part II, we examine the final hours of the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg...what unfolded in the basement room, why the execution became so chaotic, and how the hidden jewels sewn into the grand duchesses’ clothing affected the brutal scene. We follow the cover-up that followed, the search for the bodies, and the decades-long mystery surrounding the investigation.
* You may hear a bit of audio distortion toward the end. I'm traveling for the holidays, but I still wanted to bring you this week’s episode! Thanks for understanding!
Before revolution swept Russia into chaos, the Romanov dynasty was at a crossroads. Nicholas II inherited a vast empire he was never fully prepared to rule, and the entire family found themselves at the center of a storm they couldn’t escape.
The stage was being set for terrible crimes to come...
The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden shocked Fall River...but the trial that followed would capture the entire nation.
In Part II, we step inside the packed courtroom to unravel the evidence, the contradictions, and the spectacle that turned a family tragedy into America’s first true “media crime.”
Through Victorian criminology and social ideas of gendered crime, we follow how Lizzie Borden went from a quiet churchwoman to a national headline....and why the jury’s decision remains debated more than a century later.
Long before the murders that made her a household name, Lizzie Borden lived in a world shaped by Victorian rules. The strict gender expectations, family duty, and an obsession with reputation. Fall River’s elite valued quiet conformity, and the Borden household embodied those values almost to a fault.
But under that stillness, resentments were simmering. Money, inheritance, a strained step-mother relationship, mysterious illnesses, and rumors of break-ins all chipped away at the peace of 92 Second Street.
In Part II, of the Witch Trials in Würzburg... Terror reaches a new height. The city’s prisons overflow, and families vanish overnight. Even noble blood can’t save you when suspicion becomes divine truth.
We’ll trace how fear turned systematic.... and read the chilling letters left behind by those condemned.
How could an entire city lose itself so completely in the name of righteousness?
In the early 1600s, the city of Würzburg stood at the crossroads of faith and fear. As famine, plague, and war closed in, suspicion took root... and soon, neighbor turned against neighbor. Witch trials spread like wildfire across Franconia, fueled by rumor, zealotry, and the iron grip of the Counter-Reformation.
It's London in 1888...Fear has already gripped the East End. In the wake of the “Double Event,” the hunt for Jack the Ripper intensifies, but the killings only get worse, and theories seem to multiply. In this episode, we trace the investigation through the early days until modern times.
We’ll explore the suspects who seem to have been hiding in plain sight.
Before the murders began, London was already unraveling. Poverty, overcrowding, and disease turned Whitechapel into a place of desperation...The uneasy mix of empire, industry, and inequality paved the way for darkness.
Part I explores the world of late Victorian London and the real lives of the women who became the victims in this story. This isn’t just the tale of a killer, it’s the story of the city that created him.
For the Jack the Ripper Goodreads Shelf:
True Crime of the Historical Kind’s 'jack-the-ripper' books on Goodreads (10 books)
PBS Masterpiece Theater Favorites:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood | PBS
As tensions in Tombstone reach a breaking point, uneasy truces give way to open threats. In Part II, the line between law and vengeance begins to blur, and the cost of order grows dangerously high...
True Crime of the Historical Kind’s 'the-tombstone-blood-feud' books on Goodreads (4 books)
Tombstone was a boomtown built on silver, ambition, and blood in the wild west. The Earps arrive in a town teetering between law and lawlessness where fortunes rise fast, grudges run deep, and a single spark could ignite a war.
Edward Plantagenet, the 17th Earl of Warwick, was born into royal power...and forgotten behind the walls of the Tower of London. Living in the shadow of his infamous cousins, the missing Princes in the Tower, his story unfolds during the infamous Wars of the Roses.
Yet, his life was more than a footnote to their mystery. As the last male Plantagenet with a considerable claim to the English throne, Edward’s story is one of innocence, bloodline, and betrayal in a kingdom still haunted by civil war and transitioning into Tudor England.
In Part II, the walls close in. The disappearance of two royal children would echo through five centuries of history. We trace how politics, rumor, and legacy intertwined to shape one of England’s most enduring legends
Want to see the sources and historical reads behind this episode? Find them on Goodreads↗️ True Crime of the Historical Kind (truecrimeofthehistoricalkind) (0 books) | Goodreads
In a tumultuous medieval England, two young princes vanished inside the Tower of London... and history has never stopped asking what happened to them.
Part I explores the turbulent backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, the family rivalries between Lancaster and York, that shook the English throne, and resulted in the rise of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the man who would become Richard III.